


A Jolly Holiday with Mary

by LateStarter58



Series: The Loki and Theresa Stories [6]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Cesarean Section, Childbirth, F/M, Pregnancy, Pregnant Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-28
Updated: 2018-11-28
Packaged: 2019-09-01 18:38:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16770664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LateStarter58/pseuds/LateStarter58
Summary: This is part 6 (of 8, so far) in the story of Loki and Theresa. Theresa is carrying Loki’s son, a Jotun/human hybrid and therefore a form unknown to medical science on Earth or Asgard. What will happen to them, now her pregnancy is reaching its conclusion?





	A Jolly Holiday with Mary

**Author's Note:**

> This is the sixth and was for a while the final instalment in the series of stories about Loki and OFC single mum Theresa. It began as just another of my series of Loki stories with Practically Perfect and just sort of grew. However, I have since written 2 more updates, and who knows, maybe more will follow...?

I am waking reluctantly; slowly, gradually as if I am swimming up from the depths of a deep, dark, cold ocean.

The first thing I am aware of is an overwhelming sensation of love.

I take as deep a breath as my swollen belly will allow and more information begins to reach my conscious mind. There is a head resting on my breast and I feel the mouth smile and then the lips kiss my bare skin gently. A few seconds more and I detect a hand softly smoothing against the lower slopes of the massive bump, the thing that is currently pressing me firmly into the bed. It is my Loki of course, and he is communing with our unborn child.

The room we are in is large, high ceilinged, not overly ornate but very beautiful; it is full of light and subtly shaded in greens and gold. The bed I am stranded on is huge and luxurious. I am in ( _on? It’s hard to say_ ) Asgard, in Loki’s chambers in the royal palace, and my two-year-old daughter is in the next room; with her nanny ‘Mary Poppins’ no doubt in attendance; actually not really a person at all, but a projection of Loki.

_Yes, I know_ … it all seems a terrifically long way from my old life as a single mum on benefits in Colchester, doesn’t it?

What seems like eons ago, in another life - _on another world_ \- I studied human biology. One of the things I retained from the course is that they say that one reason _homo sapiens_ is such a successful species is that we are extremely adaptable. Well, I can attest to that personally. Not to the success part: I am, as I think I told you, previously at least, an epic failure. No, I cannot claim to have succeeded in any area – unless you count somehow attracting an alien god-king as a mate. No, what I am able to do is survive, because I tend to adapt rapidly and well to any situation I find myself in. When I realised quite young that I didn’t really fit in my family, I learned quickly to keep my head down and just get on with it until I could leave. When it became clear that I wasn’t going to finish my biology degree I ducked out of uni before my debts got too big (oh yes, by the way, _Student Loan Company,_ good luck collecting anything from Asgard…).

And the day the scales fell from my eyes and I saw what a total tosser Gary was (my ex - Lily’s ‘dad’ - more of a sperm donor, really), I made sure he was out of the door faster than shit off a shovel… Becoming a mum and doing it completely alone was the hardest one, the adaptation I actually _was_ struggling with when a tall dark and very handsomestranger appeared in my flat. 

Anyway, adapt is what I have had to do in the months I have been here in the _Celestial City_ , as I call it. And not just to the implacable cold at my core, thanks to the developing half-Jotun in there. It’s that life here is so strange and utterly different to what I knew before that it was a case of sink or swim, really. Everything is unfamiliar, from the people to the food, from the smells to the light… The manners, which are so very formal and totally at odds with my normal instincts… The clothes are weird too: the fabrics all feel natural, but they don’t seem to stain or wear much. And of course, living in a palace with a king, well that means servants and guards and lackeys of various sorts.

_Yes, it is all something of a dramatic contrast to living with a toddler in a two-bedroom flat in North Essex._

After the first few rather terrifying days, once everything had settled down, body-and-baby-wise, I just had to get on with it, I suppose. Loki was adamant that I had to be here and Lily was as happy, well fed and content as she had been in Colchester. Mary Poppins is the constant for us. A reassuring presence in her muted green clothing, she spends her days quietly getting on with minding Lily, playing with her, teaching her, introducing her to the wider world of Asgard. Mary’s beautiful face has so much of Loki’s in it, but it is not the same. Not only does it have the softer lines of femininity, there is more calm and childlike humour in it. She is with us every day, and since I have become less nimble (by which I mean I am now the size of a small family car), she has taken over pretty much all of Lily’s care. There was a short period when I felt relatively normal, following the success of the cooling herbal potion that the healers came up with and before my belly really started ballooning, but that seems a long time ago now.

My pregnancy is progressing at some speed, definitely faster than a normal human one. The healers seem happy with that – it will be over sooner – but the size of the child scares the crap out of me, frankly. And he is very, _very_ strong, judging by the movements I feel. I get kicked and punched regularly, in the stomach, the bladder, under the ribs (which are as sore as fuck, by the way). Frankly, I feel as if I have a massive parasite. The skin on my stomach is becoming painfully tight, and there is a distinct blue sheen to it.

_Giant-freezing-alien-blue-baby_ aside, things seems to be going a little better around here. Whatever ructions had been going on politically in Asgard and throughout the Nine Realms seems to have calmed down too. Fandral – _oh what a joy he is, the only_ _Æsir who treats me as if I was simply his equal_ – tells me that Thor has been on what sounds like a charm offensive on Loki’s behalf. Whatever he has done, it seems to have helped Loki’s mood no end. The palace population are aware of us, and I am told I have been accepted generally as Loki’s consort. He is not, apparently, a popular ruler, and probably never will be, but he is a good and fair one so far, by all accounts. I don’t see many people as I don’t go far – it’s not really physically possible now, but we take short walks in the corridors and gardens, and Lily goes out a lot with Mary P. She has a few little Æsir friends and they play together.

Thor comes to call on us both from time to time – he dotes on Lily, but who doesn’t? The best thing of all is that through him I have come to know Jane Foster. She is charming, funny, kind and fiercely intelligent, and we have bonded, thanks to our shared outsider status. And what a great joy she is to me because there is nobody else around here I can really talk to about normal stuff; human stuff. I have no idea if it is pure coincidence or whether Loki arranges it, but there have been a few occasions when I thought I was losing my mind in this bizarre situation and Jane has visited at the perfect moment to pull me back from the brink. She brings news from home, and little gifts that fox the inhabitants of Asgard: jars of _Marmite_ ; my favourite _No.7_ moisturiser; the latest copy of _Empire_. I am excited this morning because I know she will be visiting later.

And how is Loki in himself, you ask? Well, for one thing, he has cut that bloody hair! What a relief. Not short, but much shorter, just to his collar, and oh it looks so much better! There is still enough to grab hold of at... er, shall we say _crucial_ moments, but it doesn’t get everywhere anymore. Like in _my_ eyes, or my mouth… I think the last straw for him came when, after he had promised to cut it for the _nth_ time and then ‘forgot’, yet again, Lily took hold of handfuls of it and began tying it up with her ribbons. He smiled and joined in the game, but it was Mary who did the trick for me by making braids and weaving the pink sparkly fabric through his beautiful black tresses. She actually winked at me. I swear I will never understand where she comes from. She is part of him, she tells me so, as does he, but there are times when I wonder… If it is true, then he has hidden depths of playfulness I’d like to explore.

Yes, Loki is less tense overall, but he cannot hide his concern about the baby and me.

Loki spent a great deal of time when we first came to Asgard in the palace library – _now, that is a place worth a visit_ – trying to discover if there is any record of a human/Jotun mating anywhere. He found a couple of recorded instances of rape, but the women did not survive the experience, so that wasn’t exactly cheering. It seems that the Frost Giants were mainly interested in killing people when they visited Earth, so despite many long hours poring over hundreds of books and scrolls, Loki was unsuccessful. And that bothers him, I know. He likes to be in control, in whatever the situation, and none of us are in this one.

_Unless you count the child._

I am resigned to the unavoidable fact that I will have to have a C-section, and I know that it will be a painless and safe procedure, given the degree of technological advancement around here. But Loki and the healers are concerned about the birth. The baby is so strong, and they don’t really know what will happen, or when exactly to go ahead with delivering him. Because we are all in unknown territory they cannot be sure when it will be safest for both of us…

Because of this uncertainty, Loki has been working on his empathic connection to the baby. He lays next to me as he is now, for hours some days, his hand on my great swollen belly, his eyes shut and his brow furrowed. I see emotions chasing each other across his face sometimes, when I am awake; I sleep a lot now, which is annoying but unavoidable. Eat, sleep, pee… that’s my current lifestyle. He tells me our son is comfortable and happy; he can tell when he is awake and when he is not; he feels he is getting to know him already, which is good. Normally – on _Earth_ I mean – just the mother has a close emotional relationship with the child before birth, but I am glad about this. I have a bond with the baby, much as I did with Lily, but I know that Loki has so much baggage relating to family and parenting that I want him to feel as close to his child as he can. It seems to be working, which is a bright spot in all this. However so far, the link he has established has not been able to tell him if the sprog is ready to pop out… So still we wait, while I grow larger and larger, getting more and more like the bloated female in _Aliens_ on a daily basis.

_Lovely…_

I rise after Loki heads off to do all his usual daily king-stuff, and dress with the help of my maid, Gerda. We have got to know each other quite well, although she has been well trained to keep a certain distance. My alien origins are less of a barrier between us than my assumed class as Loki’s partner, I think. I like her, but she clearly finds me a total puzzle.

It is a beautiful sunny morning, as usual, and once prepared and breakfasted, I am resting on the balcony, my feet raised on a cushion on the chaise longue when Mary appears beside me.

_‘Dr Foster is here, Theresa.’_

‘Brilliant, show her out here, would you? And perhaps we could have something to drink?’

Jane comes through the open doors, untangling herself from Lily’s insistent cuddles, and I admire her petite beauty once more. She is tiny, but has such presence and energy. We embrace and she caresses my poor swollen ankles gently.

‘Can’t they do anything about that for you, Theresa? They look so uncomfortable.’

‘No,’ I shake my head sadly, ‘I had the same problem with Lily. It’s a matter of physics - pressure on the vessels. The only thing to do is keep them up as much as poss… I put icepacks on sometimes, but with…’ I waggle my hand over my giant belly. ‘I’m cool enough as it is! So, how are things with you?’

‘Oh, fine, you know. I’m so busy back home, but I managed to find a window. I arrived last night.’ She grins.

Obviously she and Thor have been having a nice time. She comes and goes, Thor comes and goes, but nobody tells me much - if anything. In some ways I wish I knew more about how things work around here, what all the whispering and shifting tensions that even I can detect actually mean. Am I right in my assumption that things have improved? As I sip my iced juice something crosses my mind.

‘Does Thor tell you much about things here? The politics, all that?’

Jane shakes her head and shrugs. ‘Practically nothing. If I ask a direct question he will answer, but I don’t really know where to start. I know he has been trying hard to smooth things over with various parties, which must be a challenge because he’s no diplomat…’

From my very limited perspective, I have noticed there has been a very slight thawing in relations between the brothers, but as I have little or no background information beyond what was in the public realm before I came here… well, I am just guessing and hoping, I suppose. When I have raised it with Loki he simply refuses to discuss it, and of course he is perfectly correct when he says that the baby is more than enough for me to worry about for the time being. Nonetheless, when I think about it I feel a trickle of unease; the safety of us all must depend on how stable his rule here actually is.

Jane is eyeing me closely. ‘If I were you, I’d stop worrying about it. It’s not something you can control and I think there will be quite enough excitement around here for everybody soon enough.’ Her gaze falls on my elephantine middle.

‘Yes-‘

‘And on that subject, I have brought some equipment with me that might help.’

I lift myself up onto my elbows laboriously. What ever can be better than all the gizmos the healers have here?

‘When you’re ready, we can go to the Healing Room and try it out.’

‘Jane, I’m not sure-‘

‘It’s just some different imaging equipment. I discussed it with them last time I was here, and I persuaded S.H.I.E.L.D. to buy it.’ She pauses, seeing the alarm on my face at the mention of that name. ‘Don’t worry. I told them I wanted to help people here with it, and share the tech with Asgard. They don’t know anything about what’s happening, still.’

She’s not being totally honest, I can see, and she chews her lip before continuing. ‘What I mean is, they _do_ know about you and Loki. And they assume you are here in Asgard.’

My heart sinks. I was afraid they would work it out eventually.

‘But you couldn’t be safer from them than you are _here_ , and they know absolutely nothing about the baby. I haven’t told Fury or any of them a thing, I promise.’

I let out a sigh. I suppose that even someone as insignificant as me can’t disappear off the face of the planet without causing a little ripple… and if they had been detecting Loki’s comings and goings as he suspected, then it wouldn’t need an intelligence network as sophisticated as theirs to put two and two together.

We set off at a stately pace for the Healing Room. I can walk, as long as I take frequent rests, and it beats sitting down all the time. It isn’t a long journey, but Gerda follows with a sort of bath chair thing that I refuse to countenance; sitting in it I would resemble that fat bloke with gout in the old Chaplin movies: _NO WAY_. After about twenty minutes and only a couple of rest stops en route, we reach the serenity, swirling lights and soothing voices of the healers. As I lie down I see Jane wheeling over what looks like a miniature scanner. The kind with a donut ring you go through.

‘ _Jane…_ ’

‘It’s totally safe, Theresa,’ Jane is trying to reassure me, but I want no x-rays anywhere near the baby, ‘no radiation, I promise. This is the very latest thing, a _portable_ MRI. Totally safe for the baby and you, Theresa. It can give these guys a better look at how developed the foetus is.’ She rests her hand on my arm as I lie back, mollified but still breathing a little fast. ‘ That way, they will have more information to help decide about when to deliver you.’

‘Since when did you become an obstetrics expert?’ I grumble.

‘I’ve been doing a lot of reading,’ she says as she finishes assembling the machine and manoeuvres it into position.

***

Later that day, after my now usual three naps, I am sitting in our chambers with Jane’s laptop precariously balanced on my bump when I hear the guards snapping their heels together: a sure sign that Loki is home. Lily looks up because she has come to recognise what the sound means too, and as the big carved wooden door swings open she sets off at a run shouting ‘Oki!!’ until she is swept up into his arms and buries her face in his neck. His face softens as his eyes close to relish her touch. _‘Hello, my princess.’_ Those two love each other very much, and it makes me so very happy to know that.

‘Come over her, Loki. I’ve got something to show you.’

He does that head-cocking thing that always makes me smile. _‘Is this something to do with the machine Jane brought with her? Thor told me about it.’_

I pat the seat beside me, and he strides over, bending on the way to put Lily back down on the rug next to her increasingly huge basket of toys (Fandral seems to buy her something new every day, and Thor came back from Earth last month with enough Lego to sink the city). Loki’s face is a picture as he peruses the processed images from the scans I had in the morning: not only did the healers get much more information about how well-developed our son’s lungs and other organs are, but the 3-D ultra-sound scanner - which Jane popped in her hand-luggage as well - has given us a clear look at his face.

Loki is gazing at the screen. _‘It is good to meet you properly at last, my boy.’_

I want to say something but I can’t speak, so I just stroke the side of his face and that makes him turn to me. He leans and kisses me tenderly and we both turn again to look into the face of our son. He’s no great beauty – none are in the womb – but we love him, and from what his father tells me, he loves us back. Loki nuzzles my neck and whispers into my ear.

_‘Are you feeling well, my darling?’_ I give him an old-fashioned look. He can read my mind; he knows precisely what I am feeling. _‘In that case, shall we go and… um… lie down for a little while?’_

He glances at Mary, who winks as he helps me to my feet and we make our stately way to the bedroom. _They’re still having sex, I hear you say? With her looking like a baby elephant?_ Let me tell you, you will know that I am dead when I don’t want to have sex with Loki. And as for him, well he just says that appearances do not matter. He loves me, and he wants me, whatever.

_I’ll let you know about that in fifty years’ time._

Of course, it’s not quite as romantic and spontaneous as it once was: we are limited to one position and I have to be shored up by a gazillion cushions and pillows… but it is still oh so very, _very good_. And you would never know from the way my king treats me that I was anything other than the most beautiful, the most slim and sexy woman in the Nine Realms. His voice is enough, soft and low in my ear as he glides up to lie behind me, and when he caresses my stomach he repeats what he said to me many months ago: I don’t think even he knew how true it would actually turn out to be.

_‘You are exceptional, Theresa. Special and precious.’_

His hand slides down my back and over my bottom, and the tips of his fingers graze my folds.

_‘Wet and wanton. Disgraceful in a mother to be.’_ He chuckles darkly and the vibration sends electric shocks through me. ‘ _I like it.’_

His fingers stroke and tease and his lips and tongue taste the skin on my neck and back. I am writhing with pleasure at his touch and when he allows me to orgasm the baby kicks, causing ripples of cold, but it’s all right. Then I feel my lover sliding implacably into me and I rise up as much as my body will allow me to meet his thrusts.

‘I love you, Theresa, my queen, my precious darling, I love you,’ he says with every movement of his hips, as his hand comes around to press and circle and bring me to my peak again. I gasp and moan and he kisses me and our bodies do what they have done for as long as we have been together: they express the love we have and share in the pleasure we offer each other.

It is glorious; it is unlike any sex I knew before, and not just because his body is so strong and beautiful, and his cock is so huge. It is different because of how we feel about it and one another. Lying there in the afterglow, I feel his heart slowing gradually against my side as his lips suck gently on my skin, I stroke his shiny black hair and take a deep inhale of his unmistakeable fragrance: green, fresh, cool.

And then I feel it: the very subtle tightening of muscles deep inside.

The first contraction.

And then I see alarm, then cold fear on Loki’s face. His eyes are wide, wild with panic.

_‘The child, Theresa… He is terrified.’_

‘What’s wrong, Loki?’

‘ _He doesn’t understand what is happening. He wants to fight it.’_ He stands up, lifting me as he did that morning. _‘We have to get you to the Healing Room immediately.’_

This time there is no panicked dash through the corridors. This time he simply transports us both there. I feel nothing different, just the dull ache of early labour… except perhaps that the baby is very active. How he can move at all I don’t know, there can’t be much space… I am completely awake, which is a mixed blessing. The head healer, Eir, materialises next to me as I gaze up at the swirly, faint image of the baby which floats above me. ‘Theresa. The King tells us that the child wants to battle the contractions. We must stop them or he could kill you.’

_Oh shit_. Of course. That’s what scared Loki so much.

‘Can you? Stop them, I mean?’

Her hand rests on my arm – it is the first time in all my many visits that any one here has actually touched me, physically – and the smile on her face does nothing to alleviate my fear. I can see she is extremely worried. ‘We believe we are succeeding, but meanwhile we are preparing to deliver the child surgically as soon as we can.’ She glances across to my other side and I know Loki is there.

_‘It will not hurt, and you will remain conscious, my darling. But we must be quick, before he can do you harm.’_

I turn my head and see his face. There are tears in his eyes, and I can see from the way the muscles in his jaw are working that he is not in a good place. Then a slight tension in my body makes itself known once again and a split-second later an unbelievable pain shoots through me. I feel as if a sword is being shoved down into my vagina and up into my chest simultaneously. I scream, everything goes very grey and grainy, then black.

***

_Warm._

_I feel warm again._

There is something cold on me, though. Something wet and slippery. I dare to open my eyes, totally disorientated, and see the familiar coppery lights of the Healing Room. The brightness hurts and so I shut them again quickly and concentrate on the sensations and sounds instead. I observe, as if from a long way off, that I am completely numb from below the waist. Something to do with the C-section, I think lazily, and that makes me come fully awake.

‘Loki!’

A dark, warm voice comes from very close. _‘Here, my queen. Open your eyes, my love.’_

I do as he says and see his beautiful face smiling at me, his eyes glowing with a joy I have never seen in them before. I let my gaze drop a little and there is our son, resting on my belly, supported by his father’s arms. He is large (I will discover he weighs almost twenty pounds) and his eyes are fixed on my face. When I meet his gaze – much sharper than a human new born baby’s would be – he smiles and I fall deeply in love. He looks human, apart from some raised ridges here and there. His colour is pink, with the merest of blue tinges here and there. And he is utterly, stunningly, breathtakingly beautiful.

_Takes after his father, then. Thank god. The gods… whatever. Who believes in all that crap anyway?_

I can hear other familiar voices in the room and suddenly Thor’s massive blond head hoves into view.

**_‘Congratulations, Theresa. Your son will be a mighty warrior.’_ **

‘I hope not! I have plans for him to become a librarian-‘

The God of Thunder huffs loudly. **_‘You jest! He has the body and the mind of a soldier; I can tell.’_**

I can see Jane batting ineffectually at his massive tree-trunk arm as she winks at me and she mouths ‘ _scientist’_ silently. I nod vigorously and we both laugh. Then I feel Loki’s hand on my arm.

_‘I think he is hungry, Theresa.’_

He is right. The baby is actually trying to propel himself towards my breasts. I can see that parenting this child is going to be interesting…

I have a thought and it must be dealt with. ‘Lily? Where is she? I need to see her first.’

_‘Mary is bringing her. The healers have only just finished repairing you. I am afraid that our son did a little damage in his panic, but it has been safely dealt with.’_

I have a memory of an agonising pain, and feel great compassion for the baby. He could not have known what was happening and of course he wanted to escape being squished.

‘We should name him, Loki. So his sister can be introduced.’

He smiles again, and I see tears on his cheeks. ‘ _Frey. That is his name._ ’

‘Frey.’ I roll it around my mouth, look him in the eye. It fits him. With Loki’s help I sit up a little and between us we get him to latch on. He sucks lustily without hesitation (like father, like son) and I know I am in for an uncomfortable few months. But I knew that this whole business wasn’t going to be easy… motherhood never is.

‘Mumma!’ Lily is there, with Mary Poppins in tow. Thor lifts her up and she smiles broadly at her new brother. ‘Hey-yo.’ He meets her gaze steadily without a pause in his suction; one hand reaches for hers.

I take a moment to drag my eyes away from my offspring and look around me at what is now my family. There is Dr Jane Foster, world-renowned astrophysicist; there is her partner, the great Norse god Thor, brick shit-house and wielder of Mjölnir; there is my darling precious one, the light of my life, my Lily; beside her is the great gift that I was given, which began the transformation of my existence, my lovely and gracious friend ‘Mary Poppins’. And here, at my breast is my newest child, the beautiful and yet to be discovered Frey…

And beside me on the bed, with his long, strong and comforting arms around me, is Loki. The God of Lies and Mischief who has never told me an untruth nor tricked nor deceived me; the cold-hearted killer at the centre of the Battle of New York who has shown me nothing but love and protection; the great enigma, the mystery I want to keep unravelling for ever.

Adapt and survive, that’s the human way. I think I can manage that one.


End file.
